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LETTERS 

DE SCRIPTIVE OP 

THE VIRGINIA SPRINGS; 

THE ROADS LEADING THERETO, AND THE 
DOINGS THEREAT. 



COLLECTED, CORRECTED, ANNOTATED AND EDITED, 

BY PEREGRINE PROLIX. 
WITH A MAP OF VIRGINIA. 



-Q,ui talia legit. 



Q.uid didicit tandem, quid scit, nisi somnia, nugas? 

Palingenius, 

My business in this state, 

Made me a looker-on here in Vienna. 

Measure for Measure, Act V. 



PHILADELPHIA 



PUBLISHED BY H. S. TANNER, 
SHAKSPEARE BUILDINGS. 

18 35, 



"T"'p.'":^: 






Entered, according- to Act of Congress, in the year 1835, 

By H. S. Tanner, 

In the office of the Clerk of the District Court of the 
Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



an 



• • • • 
• • • ' 
• • • • • 



THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 

Some time in last October, after my return 
.'Vom a somewhat lengthy sojourn in that 
'pleasant region of Virginia which containeth 
ihe mineral and thermal Springs, I perceived 
^ I the United States Gazette, under the 
e'?itorial head, the following paragraph or 
iiruunciation : 

Three of our old friends, full blooded 
" Philadelphia cockneys, have lately broken 
" loose from their moorings in the comfort- 
*' able city, and have perpetrated a tour 
" through the mountainous parts of Virginia, 
" to see the world, and pick up health. They 
" have favoured us with several letters de- 
"scriptive of their journeyings, which we 



IV PREFACE. 

"suppose contain some things that may be 
"useful to any cockneys who may wish to 
" go over the same ground next summer ; 
" and also a small modicum of amusement ,* 
" and though we know that some parts of 
" said epistles are a little tedious, yet if they 
" were ten times as tedious, we have gene- 
" rosity enough to bestow it all upon our 
" readers ; and so we give the first of the 
" series to day." 

The which notice was accompanied by the 
first of the following series of letters, which 
do purport to give some account of said 
springs and the ways to them and at them. 

The letter and its promises did somewhat 
disturb my equanimity and unsettle my pur- 
poses ; the latter of which had in view no less 
an object than to give to the world in a thick 
folio, acosmogonical, geological, mineralogi- 
cal, chemical, geographical, hydrographical, 
geodesical, geometrical, astronomical, meteor- 
ological, agricultural, horticultural, tetrapo- 



PREFACE. V 

dological,* ornithological, icthyological, con- 
chyliological, serpentine, philosophical, pop- 
ulationary, graphical, statistical and historical 
account of that beautiful and salutiferous 
region ,• which I did intend to concoct and 
construct from twenty foolscap quires of notes, 
which were written on the very spots to which 
they do refer. 

The contents of said letter embracing many 
topics on which I should have delighted to 
dilate, did check and nip in the bud my bene- 
ficent intention, and made me resolve to await 
the appearance of the whole series, before I 
should dive deep into the bowels of my pro- 
jected folio, or waste much valuable labour 
upon subjects which might be made stale and 
tedious as a twice told tale, by this unknown 
anticipator. Having waited patiently until at 
last the last has come, and having found in 
them some things useful (among many things 
useless) to spa-hunters and health-seekers at 
this time of year, and my own folio not being 

* Tetrapodoloo^y, is the history of four-footed beasts. 

,1* 



VI PREFACE. 

SO much as begun, I have determined to res- 
cue these letters from the oblivious pages of 
a diurnal, and to give them to the public in a 
form convenient to carry and easy to read, 
illustrated by a Map, whereon are accurately 
laid down the places and roads whereof the 
letters do treat. 

Courteous reader, here you will find noth- 
ing wonderful or astounding ; 

" Non hie Centauros, non Gorgonas, Harpyiasque, 
" Invenies ; hominem pagina nostra sapit." 

Martial. 

Men and things are the subject matter; 

" Quidquid agunt homines, votum, timor, ira, voluptas, 

" Gaudia, discursus, nostri farrago libelli." 

Juvenal. 

What men enact ; desire, anger, pleasure, 
Fear, joys, hurry, and talk without measure. 

I have meddled but little with the author's 
text, except where I have suspected it to have 
been corrupted by the wicked printers ; and 
in a few instances I have introduced some 



TREFACE. Vll 

lines making mention of sundry matters use- 
ful for travellers to know, that were omitted 
to be set down in the letters. I have prefixed 
captions or syllabi to the letters and a table of 
contents, to enable the reader to find any par- 
ticular matter or thing about which he may 
be curious ; and I have added a kw notes in- 
tended to explain and elucidate several dark 
and difficult passages in the text. 

The letter writer has given but a super- 
ficial view of the regioij about which he treats, 
and has left undescribed many things inter- 
esting to one like myself, who delight in poring 
over matters usque ad stuporem ; yet the 
things he has described are those most inter- 
esting to the majority of travellers who skim 
the surface with a rapidity which does not 
permit them to penetrate the substance. 

I cannot close these few prefatory observa- 
tions without expressing my thanks to the wor- 
thy publisher of this little book, for the white 
paper and readable type he has bestowed upon 



Vm PREFACE. 

it, and particularly for the valuable Map which 
he has prefixed to it, on which are accurately 
set down certain pleasant places not to be 
found on any other Map. P. P. 



/ 



CONTENTS. 

LETTER I. 

Route from Philadelphia to Charlottesville — Steam- 
boat — Extract of Tobacco — Baltimore — Wash- 
ington — Fredericksburg-^Orange Court House 
— Charlottesville — University — Stage Coach diC 
Acuities. 9 

LETTER II. 

Stage Coach Civility — Mountain Roads — Blue 
Ridge — Rock Fish Gap — Tuckahoes and Quo'- 
hees — Fried Chickens — Staunton — Weyer's 
Cave— Frazier's — Clover Dale — Warm Spring 
Mountain — Pass — Hotel — Table Etiquette — 
Cabins— Bath— Mode of Bathing. 15 

LETTER III. 

Amusements — Route to the White Sulphur — Shu- 
mate's — Callaghan's — White Sulphur — Quali- 



X CONTENTS. 

ties of the Water — Dining--room, Stables, Cabins, 
&c.— Accommodations, Table, Company — Cus- 
toms and manner of Living^. 23 

LETTER IV. 

Excursions — Lewisburg — Sweet Springs — Dinner 
Party at Confectioner's — Rifling Sheep, not Steal- 
ing Mutton — Hounds — Sunday — Difficulty of 
getting away — -Departure in a Shower — Route 
to the Salt Sulphur. 35 

LETTER V. 

Organ Cave — Pine Torch — Brownface — Journey 
in Cave — Organ Room— Smashpipe Quo'hees 
— Greatcoat — Robbers — Gil Bias — Saltpetre — 
Daylight 41 

LETTER VI. 

Brownface, a nascent schoolmaster — Salt Sulphur 
■ — Contents and Non-contents of the Water — 
Contents of the Table — Comforts — Dairy — But- 
ter — Cream — Sweet Sulphur Spring — Nullifica- 
tion Row — Road to Red Sulphur. 47 

LETTER VII. 

Red Sulphur — Mysterious Red Substance — Water 
Cool and strongly Sulphurous — Gray Sulphur — 



CONTENTS. XI 

It's First Summer — Redolent of the Palmetto — 
Two Springs, one Anti-dyspeptic, the other 
slightly Aperient — Salt Pond heard of. 53 

LETTER VIII. 

An accident, almost — Driver's ingenuity — Hum- 
phrey Clinker — English Watering Places — 
Route to Sweet Springs — their aspect — tempera- 
ture — Jean Delorme, the Genius Loci — Road to 
Hot Springs. 59 

LETTER IX. 

Hot Springs — Buildings — Scenery — The Spout 
Bath— The Boiler— Mode of Bathing— Effects 
— Diet — Taking Seventy Baths — Hot and Cold 
Springs — Physa. 67 

LETTER X. 

Departure — Warm Springs — Monsieur Lange — 
Route from Frazier's to Harrisonburg — New 
Market — Mount Jackson — Landlady of the 
Swan-^-Bad Road to Woodstock — Winchester 
— Taylor's capital Hotel — Rate of Living. 73 

LETTER XI. 

Road to Harper's Ferry — Mr. Jefferson's descrip- 
tion — Kirauea — Tomboro — Potomac — Shenan- 



XII CONTENTS. 

doah — Town — Fitzsimmons's — Factory of Arms 
— Chapel — Strait Gun Stocks — Turning Ma- 
chine — Mr. Jefferson's Rock, a Rocking Stone. 79 

LETTER XII. 

The Ancients — Idleness — Pliny — Dogberry — Spa- 
hunters — Canal boat — veracity and comforts — 
Point of Rocks — Rail Road — Scenery — EUicott's 
Mills — Route to Richmond — Powhatan House 
— from Richmond by Lynchburg to Sweet, and 
by Charlottesville to Warm Springs — Mr. Jeffer- 
son's notice of the Sweet and White Sulphur 
Springs — concluding hint. 85 

Addendum. .... 95 



LETTERS 

OF A 

TIlAVEIiI.EIl IN VmaiNIA. 

LETTER I. 

Route from Philadelphia to Charlottesville — Steatn-boat 
— Extract of Tobacco — Baltimore — Washington — 
Fredericksburg — Orange Court House — Charlottes- 
ville — University — Stage Coach difficulties. 

I LEFT Philadelphia on the 13th August, 
1834, in company with two friends, to 
perform a tour of six or seven weeks 
in the mountains of Virginia. We left 
Chestnut street wharf at six a. m., in the 
Robert Morris, an excellent boat, no doubt 
as good as that of any other line. We va- 
poured across the Peninsula in an hour, and 
were paddled down the Chesapeake in the 
Carroll of Carrollton, a spacious, rapid, and 
very clean boat. An excellent practice ob- 

2 



10 LETTERS ON THE 

tains in this boat : one or two servants are 
constantly employed in wiping up the extract 
of tobacco, with which our southern friends 
are wont to describe parabolic curves in every 
direction ; touching which singular custom, 
the refined Trollope has some pertinent re- 
marks. This is done by the servants with a 
view of keeping the skirts of the ladies clear 
of this great offence ; and — ne quid nigh 
Miss, as Terence hath it. 

We were detained half an hour near the 
mouth of the Patapsco, by putting some pas- 
seno;ers and baogao-e on board the Norfolk 
boat. When the boats approached each 
other, the effect of their mutual attraction 
was evident. 

We arrived at Baltimore at 3^ p. m., and 
stept from the steamboat into the coach for 
Washington, where we arrived at 9|- p. m. 
The road is very bad, and will grow worse, 
and is expected to become impassible just as 
the Baltimore and Washington Rail-road be- 
comes ripe for use. Thus we Americans 
make the two ends meet. 

We went to Fuller's, where every thing 
was good except the weather, which was alto- 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 11 

gether too hot for comfort. I take this op- 
portunity of hinting to friend Fuller, that it is 
a bad plan in very hot weather to set out a 
dinner for three, on that end of his long din- 
ing table which is immediately over his fur- 
nace. We made an attempt to reach the 
happy spot, but the heat drove us to take 
refuge in private apartments, where we had 
an excellent dinner at greater cost. 

As I intend these letters to be useful as 
well as agreeable, I shall here set down a few 
items of route information. You can go to 
the Virginia Springs, by Fredericksburg or 
Richmond ; but, when you have come to 
Washington, the former is the best route ; 
the latter I think preferable for those who do 
not wish to visit Washington, and who can 
transfer themselves to the Norfolk boat near 
the mouth of the Patapsco, and be in Rich- 
mond the following evening. 

To go by Fredericksburg, you leave your 
hotel in Washington, at 6 a. m. in an omnibus, 
to which you pay half a dollar for carrying 
you and your baggage, to a very good steam- 
boat, in which you do not get as good a 
breakfast as Robert used to give us in the 



12 LETTERS ON THE 

• 

Trenton. I advise the Captain of that same 
boat (who is quite a clever fellow) always 
hereafter to have two or three kinds of corn 
bread on his table ; for when Hyperboreans 
go to the South, they look for the good things 
of the South, and are by no means to be 
fobbed off with abominable imitations of 
buckwheat cakes, which can not be made good 
any where but in Philadelphia. 

You go down the grand Potomac about 
fifty-five miles, passing Mount Vernon and 
one of Uncle Sam's great forts, to Potomac 
Creek, where you take coaches and ride nine 
hilly miles to Fredericksburg, the view of 
which, with its river and valley, is exceedingly 
beautiful as you descend from the hills, a mile 
from the town. 

Here you dine ; pas grande chose ; and 
at 3 p. M. take coach for Orange Court 
House, a distance of thirty-six miles, over a 
stone turnpike in bad repair and rough, but 
not dangerous. You sleep at Orange Court 
House, having arrived at half past 9, p. m., 
if you can sleep in cotton sheets on a feather 
bed in hot weather. You get a very good 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 13 

'supper about seven miles east of Orange C. 
H. at about 7 o'clock. 

When you have got about half through 
your first nap, Cuffee knocks at your door, 
bearing in his hand a dipt and flaming minis- 
ter, as unwelcome as Othello. He announces 
that the coach is almost ready, which is cor- 
roborated by the driver's sounding horn. It 
is two hours before sunrise, and you have to 
ride three hours before breakfast ; the road 
is not bad, but the breakfast is. 

At 11 A. M. you arrive at Charlottesville, 
passing under the brow of Monticello ; and 
near which is Mr. Jefferson's great Univer- 
sity, which has met with some success since 
the great man's death. 

The University buildings are many, vari- 
ous in architecture, and handsomely arranged 
on three sides of a grassy parallelogram ; at 
the upper end of which stands a large Rotun- 
da, containing Lecture-rooms, and a large and 
commodious Library, well furnished with 
books. It requires a sojourn of one day at 
Charlottesville to enable the traveller to see 
the University buildings, which are one mile 

from the town. 

2^ 



14 LETTERS ON THE 

The line of coaches in which you have' 
come, intersects another line at Charlottes- 
ville, in which you are to continue your jour- 
ney through Staunton to the Springs, and in 
which you have a preference over the Char- 
lottesvillians ; but if you remain a day, you 
become as a Charlotlesvillian and lose your 
preference ; and some unhappy people have 
been detained here a week, when they very 
innocently intended to remain but one day. 
At Charlottesville you are almost sure to get 
into a crowded coach, but fortunately the road 
to Staunton is very good, and affords some 
magnificent mountain and valley views. Our 
Virginia friends are sound economists, and 
follow Adam Smith's principle of keeping the 
market rather understocked in the commodity 
of stase coaches. 

I shall continue the account of our journey 
in another letter. 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 15 



LETTER II. 

Stage Coach Civility — Mountain Roads — Blue Ridge- 
Rock Fish Gap — Tuckahoes and Quo'hees — Fried 
Chickens — Staunton — Weyer's Cave — Frazier's — 
Clover Dale — Warm Spring Mountain — Pass — Hotel 
—Table Etiquette— Cabins— Bath— Mode of Bath- 
ing. 

We left Charlottesville, at m. in a coach 
with nine passengers ; and when we were just 
about starting, the coach-agent, bringing to 
the coach door a decent looking country girl, 
made the following apostrophe — ' will no gen- 
tleman have the politeness to ride outside, to 
make room for this young lady V three voices 
instantly answered, I will ; the sounds having 
proceeded from an Irishman, just arrived in 
the country, a Philadelphian and a Virginian. 
The Philadelphian suited the action to the 
word, and without more ado vacated his seat. 



16 LETTERS ON THE 

I mention this to show, that in this country- 
civilization has invaded even the stagecoaches. 
The road from Charlottesville to Staunton is 
here called a turnpike, and is made by cutting 
to a depth of three or four feet into the side of 
the mountain, and throwing the earth so as to 
produce a level. A road made in this way, 
is very good in summer. In some places, to 
the inexperienced, it has an awfully danger- 
ous appearance, running up the side of a 
steep mountain, and having no parapet wall. 
The safety, however lies in the horses, who 
cannot by any means be persuaded to run off 
the road. The coaches, horses and drivers 
are good, and the latter take the precaution of 
locking one of the hind wheels, in going down 
steep or long hills. With the wheel locked, 
they drive down very fast. Before you reach 
Staunton, the Blue Ridge is crossed, through 
Rock-fish Gap, which affords splendid views 
of the great valley. This ridge divides the 
Ancient Dominion into two nations, called 
Tuckahoes and Quo'hees ; the former inhabi- 
ting the lowland, and living ' more majorum ;^ 
the latter occupying the mountains and eleva- 
ted valleys, and having somewhat sophisti- 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 17 

cated the liberal and comfortable ways of old 
Virginia, by introducing outlandish customs 
from Pennsylvania and other foreign coun- 
tries. We dined somewhere, I forget where, 
and arrived at Staunton, at 7 p. m. I advise 
every traveller, who comes from the northern 
side of Mason & Dixon's line, to eat fried 
chickens, whenever he meets with them in 
Virginia. 

Twelve miles from Staunton is Weyer's 
Cave, which, those can spend a day in visiting, 
who are fond of scrambling over rocks and 
stones, for an extent of three miles under 
ground, at the risk of being detained several 
days in Staunton, by losing their preference in 
the coach. It is a magnificent cave and well 
worth a visit. 

As soon as our coach stopped at the tavern, 
I jumped out and engaged single-rooms, and 
seats for the next day, for the Warm Springs. 
The house is good, both for supper and lodg- 
ings. 

At 4 A. M. the next morning, we were re- 
packed in the coach, with nine insides, to 
travel fifty-two miles to the Warm Springs. 
In three hours, we reached Frazier's, a dis- 
tance of fourteen miles, where they detained 



18 LETTERS ON THE 

US an hour and a quarter, to give us a tolera- 
ble breakfast. 

In nineteen miles more, we reached Clover- 
Dale, where we obtained a good dinner ; 
whence we started at 2 p. m. and reached the 
Warm Springs, at 7 p. m. The road from 
Staunton to the Warm Springs, is nearly all 
turnpiked, and the remainder is in progress, 
and will be finished by next summer. But 
little of it is bad, and the portions leading over 
the two mountains are excellent. 

The road over the Warm Springs moun- 
tain, is very skillfully graded, and leads you to 
a fearful height by a very easy ascent ; now 
winding its slow length up one side of a deep 
ravine, now up the other ; now turning short 
round the projecting angle of a mountain 
spur, now leading through the gap which 
forms the mountain pass. As you approach 
the Pass, the view towards the east is exten- 
sive and grand. In the Pass is a small farm 
house, where you can get a draught of good 
water, and you will certainly be tired and 
thirsty. Passing on a few yards, you sud- 
denly behold lying at your feet, the Hotel and 
cabins of the Warm Springs ; that celebrated 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 19 

and inevitable spot which is the beginning and 
the end, the Ay and Izzard of a tour to the 
Virginia Springs. It reposes in an elevated 
valley, at the western foot of the mountain, 
and is about three-quarters of a mile from the 
pass. The descent is not steep, but has, in 
its course, several very acute angles, which 
the coach describes with fearful rapidity ; but 
fortunately the traveller's sense of danger has 
worn away before he has reached this des- 
cent. 

The Warm Springs' Hotel, which is under 
the management of Mr. Fry, a very worthy 
and obliging person, is a two-storied brick 
building, about one hundred feet in front, im- 
mediately on the road, and having a spacious 
piazza extending along its whole front ; and 
possessing a room for dancing, and a common 
parlor. There is a large and airy eating- 
room, in which, thrice a day, is spread a table 
amply supplied with a variety of good things. 
Each plate has a card near it, bearing the 
name of the person who has the right to use 
it ; a custom which prevails at all the Vir- 
ginia Springs, and which cannot be too much 
commended. After the meal is over, the 



20 LETTERS ON THE 

cards are taken up in their order, and re- 
placed in the same way at the next meal ,* the 
cards of the departed being withdrawn, and 
their places being filled by promoting the 
next in order ; the last comers always begin- 
ning at the foot of the table. It is easy to 
see that this system must effectually prevent 
confusion, and disputation about seats. 

Besides the large house, there are five or 
six rows of huts, (Virginice cabins) some built 
of logs and mud, and some of brick and mortar. 
Most of them contain two small rooms, in one 
of which is generally a fire place. 

When we arrived, the establishment was 
rather full, and Mr. Fry stowed one of us 
in a small room in the Hotel, and the other 
two in the most ancient log cabin on the pre- 
mises, consoling us by the observation that 
Mr. Jefferson had formerly spent three weeks 
in the self-same mud edifice ; at the same time 
hinting (which was the most solid part of the 
consolation) that the next day he could trans- 
late us into a better residence. 

The place derives its name from an abun- 
dant spring of limpid water, containing a 
small quantity of sulphuretted hydrogen, and 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 21 

emitting bubbles of nitrogen, which flows 
through an octagonal bath, thirty-eight feet 
in diameter, having the sides of stone masonry, 
and the bottom of large loose rounded pebbles. 
It is covered with a wooden building, having 
a large opening in the middle of the roof to 
admit air and light. The water in the bath 
always exhibits a temperature of ninety-six 
degrees, according to the scale of Fahrenheit, 
and is so pellucid, that you scarcely see it 
upon first entering the bath house. There is 
a small room at each side of the bath with a 
little fire, to undress and redress by. There 
are stones steps leading from these rooms to 
the bottom of the bath ; but by far the best 
way, is to plunge in head foremost, as you are 
then instantly transferred to the comfortable 
element, and are out of your pains in a mo- 
ment, as the boys say. 

The water is five feet deep for the gentle- 
men and four for the ladies. The two sexes 
bathe alternately ; spaces of two hours each 
being allotted, from 6 a. m. to 10 p. m. You 
may take three baths a day without injury. 
To bathe comfortably, you should have a large 
cotton morning gown of a cashmere shawl 
3 



22 LETTERS ON THE 

pattern lined with crimson, a fancy Greek cap, 
Turkish slippers, and a pair of loose panta- 
loons ; a garb that will not consume much 
time in doffing and donning. Stay in the bath 
fifteen minutes, using very little exercise 
whilst in the water. As soon as you come 
out, hurry to your cabin, wrap yourself in a 
dry night gown, go to bed, cover up warm, go 
to sleep, get into a fine perspiration, grow 
cool by degrees, wake up in half an hour, 
dress and go to dinner with what appetite you 
have. 

This process, except the dinner, may be 
repeated twice a day with great profit and 
pleasure, and on one occasion, breakfast or 
supper can take the place of dinner. At this 
comfortable, well kept and agreeable estab- 
lishment, the charge is eight dollars per week, 
or one and half per diem ; and half price for 
servants and horses. If you want fire in your 
room you have it for asking, and in truth 
every effort is used to give comfort and satis- 
tion to the visiters. 



VIRGINIA^PRINGS. 23 



LETTER III. 

Amusements — Route to the White Sulphur — Shumate's 
— Callaghan's— White Sulphur — Qualities of the 
Water — Dining-room, Stables, Cabins, &c. — Ac- 
commodations, Table, Company — Customs and 
manner of Living. 

The means of amusement at the Warm 
Springs, consist of a bagatelle table entirely 
used up, a ten-pin alley with three wooden 
balls of different sizes, not round ; and the 
Warm Spring Mountain to walk or ride up 
and down. Every visiter should ascend to 
the top of the mountain, which can be reach- 
ed in half an hour on horseback ; and whence 
may be seen a sublime mountain-view, con- 
sisting of parallel mountain ridges, one be- 
yond the other as far as the eye can reach, 
like a dark green sea of giant billows, instantly 
stricken solid by nature's magic wand. 



24 LETTERS ON THE 

The coach for the White Sulpher Springs 
being engaged for many days beforehand, we 
were in danger of remaining at the Warm 
Springs longer than we wished. Fortunately 
however for us, an ancient hack came with 
two gentlemen from Staunton, and just as old 
Henry was starting to return to his master, 
we fell in with him, and engaged him to carry 
us to the White Sulphur. We left the Warm 
Springs at 3^ p. m. on the 19th of August, 
and crept along to Shumate's, a tavern at 
fourteen miles distance, where we supped and 
slept. It began to rain just after our arrival, 
and rained all night and all the following 
morning. We were in motion again before 
sunrise the next morning, and all got wet, 
because the respectable old vehicle was not 
water tight. We breakfasted at Callaghan's, 
so called from a merry Irishman who former- 
ly lived there ; but now the house is very 
well kept by an English family, named Plum. 

We arrived at the White Sulphur at 1^ 
p. M. and found it overflowing with company, 
humming like a bee hive. This is the great 
lion of the Virginia mountains, and like the 
worshippers of Juggernaut, the votaries of 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 25 

pleasure are willing to be crushed to death, 
to obtain a chance of laying their offerings 
on the shrine that fashion has set up in this 
happy valley. 

The water has the pleasant flavor of a half- 
boiled, half-spoiled egg, is very clear, and not 
cold enough to please the taste of a Philadel- 
phia cockney. The spring is covered with a 
handsome dome, supported on columns, and 
is contained in an octagonal marble case, 
about seven feet long, five feet wide, and four 
and a half feet deep, the bottom being formed 
of the rock from which the water gushes. It 
is very beautiful and tempting, and cures the 
following diseases, according to popular be- 
lief — Yellow Jaundice, White Swelling, Blue 
Devils and Black Plague ; Scarlet Fever ; 
Yellow Fever, Spotted Fever, and fever of 
every kind and colour ; Hydrocephalas, Hy- 
drothorax. Hydrocele and Hydrophobia, Hy- 
pochondria and Hypocrisy ; Dyspepsia ; 
Diarrhoea, Diabetes, and die-of-any-thing ; 
Gout, Gormandising and Grogging ; Liver 
Complaint, Cholic, Stone, Gravel, and all 
other diseases and bad habits, except chewing, 
smoking, spitting and swearing. 
3* 



26 LETTERS ON THE 

My own private opinion is, that the White 
Sulphur water, is an excellent alterative, and 
combined with the exercise necessary to 
reach it, the pure mountain air and agreea- 
ble society found in these elevated regions, 
perform wonderful cures in many chronic com- 
plaints not removable by medicine swallowed 
at home. 

It contains sulphuretted hydrogen, nitrogen, 
and oxygen ; sulphate, carbonate and muriate 
of lime, sulphate of magnesia, and a very 
strong infusion of fashion. The latter being 
an animal substance, its quantity cannot be 
precisely ascertained ; it is supposed, however, 
to be gradually increasing, and no doubt con- 
tributes greatly to the efficacy of the water. 
When submitted to the ordeal of analysis, it 
vanishes in smoke. 

This celebrated spring, bursts forth in an 
elevated valley, situated on the western side 
of the main Allegheny ridge, and its precious 
waters flow towards the gulf of Mexico ; whilst 
the sweet spring, distant only eight miles in 
a direct line, sends its abundant stream to- 
wards the Atlantic Ocean. 

Like that of Rasselas, this valley seems to 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 27 

be surrounded by insuperable hills ; but at both 
extremities are passes wide enough to admit 
the entrance and exit of one of the tributaries 
of the Green Brier ; along whose banks and 
through whose rocky bed passes by turns the 
great mail route from Washington to Guyan- 
dotte. 

The middle of the valley where the build- 
ings stand, is cleared of forest ; care having 
been taken to leave a few noble trees for orna- 
ment and shade. The buildings consist of a 
frame dining room about 120 feet long ; with 
which is connected a large kitchen and bakery ; 
a frame ball room with lodging rooms over it 
and at each end ; two very large frame stables 
with 80 stalls in each, of which the exterior 
rows are open to the air ; and many rows of 
cabins tastefully arranged around the larger 
edifices, and standing on rising ground. The 
cabins are composed of various materials, 
brick, frame or logs, and the view of the tout- 
ensemble is very pleasing. Most of the modern 
cabins are furnished with little piazzas, and 
shaded by forest trees, purposely rescued from 
the ruthless axe. There are several straight 
and dusty walks laid out with rectangular art ; 



28 LETTERS ON THE 

and many artless paths more agreeable to the 
foot and eye. The cabins are in general, 
comfortable and the bedding clean ; some sus- 
picion of fleas I confess too, but I detected no 
bugs, which are perhaps kept away by the 
nature of the water, for Virgil says in the 
fifth book of his Georgics : 

" Foetidum in aqua non gaudet sulphurea^jedbag , 

which being translated into the Virginia vern- 
acular, means, "the stinking chinch, does not 
like sulphur water." The last word of the 
above quoted hexameter, I take to be an 
ancient Latin neuter indeclinable noun. 

This elysium of summer, is the property of 
one individual, whose venerable silver locks, 
placid and care-free countenance, frank and 
agreeable manners, win the favourable regard 
of all who have the pleasure of making his 
acquaintance ; and it is under the manage- 
ment of a man, small indeed in stature, but 
mighty in management and merit — the mag- 
nanimous, mysterious, mellifluent Metternich 
of the mountains. This gentleman spares no 
pains to accommodate his guests, and succeeds 
beyond hope, in making four hundred people 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 29 

comfortable, in quarters calculated for half 
the number. The table is liberally supplied 
with esculents, and good tea and coffee, and 
bread of various kinds, all of which will come 
to you of their own accord, if you sit quiet for 
five minutes, during which time the servants 
are occupied in supplying those refined per- 
sons who fee them for the first cuts ; and the 
supply is always so liberal that nothing is lost 
by waiting. 

The greatest charm of this place, is the de- 
lightful society which is drawn together in 
every agreeable variety, by its health-restor- 
ing spring. From the east you have con- 
solidationists, tariffites and philanthropists; 
from the middle, professors, chemical analysts, 
and letter writers ; from the west, orators, and 
gentlemen who can squat lower, jump higher, 
dive deeper, and come out drier, than all 
creation besides ; and from the south, nullifiers, 
union men, political economists, and states- 
men ; and from all quarters, functionaries of 
all ranks, ex-candidates for all functions, and 
the gay, young, agreeable and handsome of 
both sexes, who come to the White Sulpher 
to see and be seen, to chat, laugh and dance, 



30 LETTERS ON THE 

and to throw each his pebble on the great heap 
of the general enjoyment. 

The customs here are very liberal towards 
the guests. A good ball room, and excellent 
band of music, are in occupation every even- 
ing, free to all the boarders, without charge. 
Nobody at the public table is expected to drink 
or pay for any wine or other liquors he does 
not want ; and any body can have fire enough 
in his cabiu to roast an ox, by saying, with 
Horace, ' Boy, (meaning old uncle Duncan) 
fetch me some wood :' ' Puer, pone lignum 
super foco.' Uncle Duncan is a highly re- 
spectable yellow character, with a hawk's eye 
and an eagle's nose, and perhaps a drop of 
the imperial blood of Powhatan, who makes 
his bivouac among the trees on the hill in the 
rear of Alabama Row, under a slantindicular 
shed, lighted up most romantically by a large 
watch fire ; and if you want any thing, you 
have only to open your postern and screech 
' Duncan, oh, Duncan.' There are no bells, 
as captain Hamilton says ; and what do we 
want with bells, when we have good lungs? 
Neither are there any shovels and tongs — and 
why should there be ? when a small stick of 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 31 

wood is so much better to poke a fire withal, 
than a cold heavy pair of tongs, which gene- 
rally give your hand a pinch. 

If you are happy enough to be a bachelor, 
get into Alabama Row : if your state is a 
happy duplicity. Paradise Row is your befit- 
ting asylum— opposite to which is a pretty 
isolated cottage, resting under the refreshing 
shade of several ancient sons of the forest. 
Running from the east end of Paradise Row 
at right angles, towards the south, is a row 
of beautiful white cabins, piazza fronted, and 
looking towards the dome-covered spring. On 
the other side of the road are Compulsion 
Row and Wolf Row ; the latter of which 
avoid, unless you be young and foolish — fond 
of noise and nonsense, froHc and fun, wine and 
wassail, sleepless nights, and days of head- 
ache ; Mercury and Nimrod have taken up 
their abode there, and Macbeth-like, nightly 
murder sleep. 

If you are geological, do not forget that 
you are within the edge of the great basin of 
the Ohio ; and that you can obtain a great 
variety of interesting fossils in the stratum of 



32 LETTERS ON THE 

limestone which is bare in the beds of the 
water courses and the steep sides of the hill. 

If conchyliological, search the hills for he- 
lices, and the waters for naiades, planorbes, 
physae, lymnaeas, and other fluviatile shells ; 
and all that you find, wrap separately, mark- 
ing their respective localities on the papers, 
and bring them home for my cabinet. The 
waters of the Warm Spring, and of the White 
Sulphur, have been accurately analysed by 
Professor William Barton Rogers,* of Wil- 
liam and Mary College, a scientific and prac- 
tical chemist of great experience, who intends 
to apply the fiery test to all the mineral waters 
of western Virginia ; and it is to be hoped, 
will give to the world of invalids the result of 
his valuable labors, before the revolving sun 
shall again call them to the region of renova- 
tion and amusement. I had the pleasure of 
being present at some of the learned Profes- 
sor's experiments, and can vouch for the un- 

* It is understood that the learned Professor has since 
been appointed by Virginia, to make geological surveys 
within her borders; and that he will give in his report to 
the state, the results ofhis analytical experiments on the 
Mineral Waters. 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 83 

remitting care and severe accuracy with which 
they were performed ; and I believe that all 
the information that has lately been circula- 
ted respecting the contents of the Virginia 
Springs, has been derived from the analyses 
of Professor Rogers. 

And now, Mr. Editor, I hope I have shewn 
you enough of the delights of the White Sul- 
phur Springs, to induce you and some of your 
readers to go there next summer. 



( 35 ) 



LETTERIV. 

Excursions — Lewisburg — Sweet Springs Dinner 

Party at Confectioner's — Rifling Sheep, not Stealing 
Mutton — Hounds — Sunday — Difficulty of getting 
away — Departure in a Shower — Route to the Salt 
Sulphur. , 

Those who have carriages, can make plea- 
sant excursions to Lewisburg and the Sweet 
Springs. The former is distant from the White 
Sulphur nine, and the latter sixteen miles. 
The road to Lewisburg crosses the Green 
Brier River and one of its tributaries ; and 
passes over several hills, (quasi mountains,) 
affords some beautiful and romantic views, is 
turnpiked all the way, and is in very good 
order. The hotel there, affords very good 
dinners, and the undulation of the road affords 
the aspiring young Jehus a fine opportunity of 
displaying their want of skill in the noble sci- 
ence of the whip. 



36 LETTERS ON THE 

The road to the Sweet Springs is also very- 
good, and the ride there and back feasible in 
one day. The turnpike crosses the main 
Allegheny ridge, which divides the waters 
flowing into the Atlantic from the tributaries 
of the Ohio. The direct distance is not sup- 
posed to exceed eight miles, but the windings 
of the road necessary to overcome the inter- 
posed elevation, make it extend to sixteen. 
The road is so judiciously laid out, that you 
go up and down the mountain without being 
aware of the great height you have passed. 
The scenery on the eastern, is more beautiful, 
but less wild, than that on the western side of 
the ridge, the geological phenomena are very 
interesting. 

Parties of gentlemen frequently go to dine 
at a confectioner's half a mile off, where they 
eat venison and other good things sub dio, and 
quaff their wine and puff nicotian fumes most 
delightfully, under the shade of the forest 
trees. I dined there with a party, of whom 
three were from Virginia, three from Louisi- 
ana, one from Scotland, two from North Caro- 
lina, one from New York, one from Boston, 
and three from Philadelphia. Such meetings 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 37 

are very agreeable, and tend to render the 
Union of the States more perfect. 

Pic Nic parties embracing some of the 
fairer part of creation, often take place in 
some beautiful spot in the forest, or on the 
bank of the Green Brier, and are the occa- 
sion of much pleasure and amusement. 

On the first afternoon of a stranger's arri- 
val at the White Sulphur, he is sometimes 
startled, by the sharp crack of a rifle re- 
peated seven or eight times ; on inquiry, he 
is informed that the marksman of the estab- 
lishment is thus unceremoniously converting 
certain innocent and unconscious sheep into 
mutton, for to-morrow's dinner. This yellow 
functionary, never fails to send his bullet 
through the victim's brain, and argues, that 
shooting is a much more honorable death, than 
cutting of throats. There is a fine pack of 
hounds kept here, and frequently used for 
hunting the deer, which abound in the neigh- 
boring forests. Every one who likes, can 
join in this spirit-stirring sport, provided he 
owns, or can beg, borrow or steal a horse. 
On Sunday, the bar-room -is converted 

into a chapel for the nonce, and the gay into 

4# 



38 LETTERS ON THE 

the devout. On the Sundays I passed at the 
White Sulphur, the Divine Service of the 
Episcopal Church, was rubrically performed 
by a young clergyman from Petersburg, and 
was followed by an excellent sermon from the 
same gentleman. The congregation was nu- 
merous and devout. 

The facinations of the White Sulpher are 
so many, that you do not soon wish to leave 
them ; and when you have made up your 
mind that you are ready to go, it is no easy 
matter to get away, unless you have your own 
locomotive. The supply of travelling conve- 
niences is by no means commensurate with 
the demand, at certain seasons, and therefore, 
a week before you go, you must engage your 
seat in some coach going whither you wish. 
My two friends left me here, and I joined 
myself to another learned Theban, a philoso- 
pher, who, like myself, was hunting health 
and knowledge in the mountains. 

One fine morning, with tears in our eyes, 
we left the White Sulpher just after break- 
fast, to proceed to the Salt Sulphur Springs : 
whence a kind Virginia friend had sent his 
carriage for us. The distance is twenty-four 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 39 

miles, a great part of which may be called 
tolerabl)^ bad road. The route follows the 
course of a mountain rivulet, which it crosses 
more than a dozen times, and in some places, 
passes for many yards along its stony bed. 
The scene for miles is wild and romantic, be- 
ing laid in the heart of an ancient forest, 
flanked at intervals by mountain spurs, ter- 
minating in lofty promontories of rock. After 
travelling about fourteen miles, we emerged 
from the forest, and saw a smooth unpainted 
board stuck up by the road side, with certain 
characters traced thereon in black. The let- 
ters having various dimensions and directions, 
and the N's and S's being turned the wrong 
way, we had some difficulty in making out 
' John Roger's Organ Cave.' We stopped, 
and a little brown-faced, bare-footed moun- 
taineer, the watchman of the sign, asked us 
if we wished to go into the cave. I sounded 
a Strombus Gigas, (i. e. conk) and John 
Rogers, soon appeared with an armful of split 
pine for torches, and a chump of fire to ignite 
them, wherewith to light us through his sub- 
terraneous domain. 



( 41 ) 



LETTER V. 

Organ Cave — Pine Torch — Brownface — Journey in 
Cave — Organ Room— Smashpipe Quo'hees — Great- 
coat — Robbers — Gil Bias — Saltpetre — Daylight. 

The mouth of the Organ Cave is situated 
nearly under the road, at the bottom of a deep 
ravine, which seems as if it had formerly dis- 
charged a large stream of water into the Cave. 
The superincumbent earth over which the 
road passes, is supported by an almost hori- 
zontal and very thick stratum of secondary 
lime-stone. The approach is very romantic, 
descending the steep and wooded side of the 
ravine, by a zigzag path, which leads by an 
easy slope, (" facilis descensus Averni,") to 
the black and yawning chasm. 

The preparation for exploring one of these 
cyclopoean caves, consists of a supply of pitch- 
pine sticks, faith in your guides and folly in 
yourself. 



42 LETTERS ON THE 

The sticks are about two feet long, and 
each one as thick as a thin finger ; fifteen or 
twenty of which being held together in the 
hand, and fired at the upper end, make the 
best of torches, will burn bright for two hours, 
and distinctly show the floor, sides and roof of 
the cave through the palpable obscure. 

Little magazines of sticks are judiciously 
left at intervals of a quarter of a mile, as you 
penetrate deeper and deeper into the bowels 
of the land, to replenish from time to time the 
moribund luminaries. 

John Rogers lighted one torch, little brown 
face another and myself a third ; my Theban 
friend not fearing Bseotian darkness, was con- 
tent to walk with borrowed light. 

We first entered a spacious apartment, 
about thirty feet high, fifty broad, and three 
hundred long, arched with rock, of which 
fallen fragments strewed the floor. 

The floor dips about ten degrees from the 
entrance, and near the lower end of this 
apartment, on the right hand, is a small aper- 
ture, just large enough to suffer a man to 
creep through, which leads into a passage 
about ten feet wide, four feet high, and two 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 43 

hundred and fifty feet long. The floor of this 
passage is almost smooth and nearly level, 
and the sides and roof formed of compact 
rock. No fragments seem to have fallen 
here from the roof; but it has very much the 
air of shutting down upon you bodily, and 
you suffer much inconvenience from the ne- 
cessity of stooping, and now and then rubbing 
your back against the impending rock. 

This passage opens into a spacious apart- 
ment, rough and rocky, and full of yawning 
gulphs and dangerous passes. A stone thrown 
into one of these awful pits, was heard for a 
time to bound from side to side, and then sul- 
lenly to plunge into the water far below. 

After some distance, this great apartment 
branches to the left and right ; the latter 
course, as John Rogers told us, leads over a 
rocky mountain, which we had to ascend and 
descend to reach the organ room, the jewel 
of the cave. Toil and danger attend the pas- 
sage of this tartarean hill. For some dis- 
tance, you pass along a path or ledge of rock 
about a foot wide, with the perpendicular side 
of the cavern on your right hand, and a preci- 
pice whose foot is lost in darkness on your 



44 LETTEES ON THE 

left ; then for a space you scramble over 
rocks, until big drops of healthful exercise 
course one another down your innocent nose. 
Now you reach a living spring which leaps 
from the rock into a stalactitic basin, and 
here you stop and stoop and drink ; and here 
you also pull off your great coat, if it happens 
to be on. 

Thus refreshed and lightened you resume 
your march, and in a few minutes pass through 
a harrow opening into the organ room. This 
room is not very large, but is extremely in- 
terestinor from the numerous stalactites of vari- 
ous forms which it contains. Near the en- 
trance is a perfect column extending from the 
floor to the roof, which it seems to support, 
and increases your sense of security. 

In another part of the room depend from 
the roof, a great number of distinct but par- 
allel stalactites, which do not reach the floor, 
are arranged after the manner of organ pipes, 
and upon being gently stricken with a stick 
or stone, do forthwith emit Memnonian sounds. 
The organ has been much injured and put out 
of tune, by certain barbarous Quo'hees, who 
have, unknown to John Rogers, invaded this 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 45 

deep recess, and broken some of the pipes. 
The organ room is distant from the cave's 
mouth about three quarters of a mile. 

Time and newspapers wait for no man ; so 
I must forthwith quit this cave, and translate 
myself into the upper element, leaving the 
rest of the wonders of the organ room, to be 
described by my learned friend, in a profound 
work he is now putting together, for the bene- 
fit of his fellow-creatures. He remained some 
time in the room with John Rogers and the 
torch, after Brownface and I had commenced 
retreating. When about half out, (ourselves 
and the torch,) I stopped to put on my great 
coat, and accidentally turning and looking 
back, I saw a light glaring behind us, at the 
distance of a furlong, and presently the torch- 
bearer and the Philosopher emerged from a 
turn in the cave, making the darkness visible, 
and transporting me in imagination to the 
Robbers' Cave in Gil Bias. Instead of fol- 
lowing us, they took the aforesaid left hand 
branch, which following two furlongs, they 
found a spot, where formerly, certain Troglo- 
dytes digged villainous saltpetre from the 
harmless earth, to slay their fellow men. 

5 



46 LETTERS ON THE 

Now threading the low passage, and emerg- 
ing into the great vestibule, I saw again 
in the distance, through the cave's mouth, 
the bright and cheerful colors of the sunny- 
world. 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 47 



LETTER VI. 

Brownface, a nascent schoolmaster — Salt Sulphur — 
Contents and Non-contents of the Water — Contents 
of the Table — Comforts — Dairy — Butter — Cream — 
Sweet Sulphur Spring — Nullification Row — Road to 
Red Sulphur. 

I WAITED at the cave's mouth for the forth- 
coming of my companion for the space of 
twenty minutes, which I spent in agreeable 
converse with little Brownface, who gave me 
to understand that he wished to follow the 
trade and mystery of a school- master ; and I 
verily believe, the only science the poor lad 
has, is a little knowledge of the rifle, where- 
fore he opines, that he can teach the young 
idea how to shoot. 

On re-entering our carriage, we found that 
two hours had fled, whilst we were in the cave ; 
I advise you therefore, patient reader, to take 



48 LETTERS ON THE 

a whole day to it, if you would see all its 
wonders. We met with no more very bad 
roads, and arrived at the Salt Sulphur Spring, 
at 5 p. M. totally tired and hollow with hun- 
ger, as we had dined in the cave upon mere 
curiosity. 

The Salt Sulphur Spring is situated in an 
elevated valley on the western side of the main 
Allegheny ridge, and contains nearly the same 
ingredients as the White Sulphur, with the 
addition of a little Sulphate of Soda, which 
makes it a sure purgative, if three or four 
glasses be taken before breakfast. Professor 
Rogers, made an accurate analysis of the water 
whilst I was there, and found in it, no Muriate 
of Soda, although the worthy proprietors had 
been accused by the unlearned, of throwing 
into the Spring a daily supply of that common 
condiment, upon whose presence they supposed 
its purgative power to depend. The discovery 
in the water of Sulphate of Soda or Glauber 
Salt, made by the learned professor, was 
therefore very agreeable to the friends of 
Messrs. Carutliers &; Erskine, the estimable 
and enterprising proprietors, as it solved at 
once the mystery of purgation. 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 49 

Every thing good for the sick and sane is 
to be found here in the greatest abundance. 
At breakfast, twelve to fifteen different kinds 
of wheat, bran, maise, buckwheat, rye, rice, 
hot and cold bread and cakes ; milk without 
water, and cream without milk ; coffee and 
tea, green and black ; sausages, eggs, honey, 
maple molasses and cheese ; mutton and 
venison chops, fried and broiled ; fried chickens 
and cold corned beef and ham ; and all these 
well cooked and arranged on a snow white 
table cloth, supported by a table, having ample 
room and verge enough for all the guests to 
sit comfortably, and partake of the aforesaid 
dainties without indecent hurry. 

The dining room is 160 feet long, and 40 
feet wide, and the air is gently and pleasantly 
agitated, and the marauding flies effectually 
put to flight by a long line of fans, pendant 
from the ceiling, co-extensive with the table, 
and diligently kept in motion by the muscular 
power of a young sethiop, applied to one end 
of a rope ingeniously connected with each 
particular fan. 

At dinner you have venison, beef and mut- 
ton ; turkies, ducks and chickens ; corned 
5* 



50 LETTERS ON THE 

beef and ham, cooked in all sorts of ways, and 
followed by a desbeit consisting of a variety 
of excellent pastry and preserves, with abun- 
dance of rich milk and cream. For supper, 
see the foregoing account of breakfast. The 
butter is always fresh and good, and made in 
their own dairy, which go and look at ; Mr. 
Caruthers will show it to you with much 
pleasure, and he has a right to be proud of it. 
There are hot and cold mineral and fresh 
water baths. 

If you have a whim or fancy for any thing 
that is out of the common routine, ask and 
you will get it, for accommodation is the com- 
mon law of the place. 

At the distance of five hundred yards is a 
spring called the Sweet Sulphur, which has 
no Glauber Salt in it, and is a very agreeable 
beverage before dinner or in the evening. 
You can walk to it by the road, or by a path 
which leads over a romantic hill. 

The rides and walks are very pleasant, em- 
bracing every variety of scenery, mountain, 
valley, hill and dale, wood, lawn, rocks and 
streams. Many interesting fossils reward the 
labour of the geologist ; and the conchyliolo- 



(f: 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 51 

gist finds several genera of fluviatile and ter- 
restial rnoUusca. 

The accommodations are sufficient for two 
hundred and fifty persons, and until the middle 
of September, there is a large and agreeable 
society to be found there, consisting chiefly of 
families from the more southern states. 

Besides the chambers over the dining room, 
there are many rows of comfortable cabins, 
well furnished with bedding, chairs and tables ; 
and even shovels and tongs are to be found 
here. 

There is a commodious ball room, in which 
are music and dancing every evening, and 
preaching every Sunday. A sitting parlour is 
provided for gentlemen, and another for ladies, 
in which is a piano. 

There is a row of pretty, new cabins, with 
piazzas in front joining each other, thus form- 
ing a covered walk of considerable length for 
rainy or sunny weather. This is called Nul- 
lification Row, in honor of a certain gallant 
little state, and was occupied by a number of 
agreeable South Carolinians of the Union 
party. 

I passed eight days very pleasantly in this 



52 LETTERS ON THE 

abode of comfort and abundance, and on the 
8th September at noon, started for the Red 
Sulphur Spring, in the regular stage coach. 
My companion wishing to make little explor- 
ing episodes by the way, our worthy hosts 
lent him a capital gray charger, to ride and 
keep ab libitum as to distance and time. 

The distance to the Red Sulphur is eighteen 
miles over a mountainous and woody region, 
which grows wilder and more romantic as you 
proceed. You pass two or three little valleys, 
into which the sun's rays penetrate between 
the branches and trunks of the gigantic trees, 
which have been robbed of their leafy honors 
by the process of girdling; the ground below 
being occupied by Indian corn. After ascend- 
ing several successive elevations, the road 
reaches the top of a narrow mountain ridge, 
along which it runs for several miles, and 
affords a prospect into the deep and precipitous 
valley on either side. After descending from 
this ridge, the road follows for several miles, 
the bank of a beautiful creek, and at 4 p. m., 
brings you to the Red Sulphur Spring. 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 53 



LETTER VII. 

Red Sulphur — Mysterious Red Substance — Water Cool 
and strongly Sulphurous — Gray Sulphur — It's First 
Summer — Redolent of the Palmetto — Two Springs, 
one Anti dyspeptic, the other slightly Aperient — 
Salt Pond heard of. 



The Red Sulphur Spring is one of the most 
beautiful and interesting objects in the Vir- 
ginia mountains. It flows from the rock into 
a quadrangular reservoir, composed of four 
slabs of white marble, the lower edges of which 
rest on the rock from which the water gushes. 
The reservoir is about six feet long, five wide, 
and four and a half deep ; and a beautiful red 
and mysterious substance covers the bottom, 
which, extending some distance up the sides, 
sheds through the transparency of the water, 
its own lovely hue. 

The water is clear and cool, (its tempera- 



54 LETTERS ON THE 

ture being fifty-four of Fahrenheit,) is very 
strongly charged with Sulphuretted Hydrogen 
Gas, and contains portions of several neutral 
salts. It possesses in a high degree, the val- 
uable property of lowering an exalted pulse, 
and is gently diuretic and aperient. To a 
Philadelphia palate, its coolness is very grati- 
fying. 

The Spring is situated near one side of a 
little triangular plain, almost buried in moun- 
tains, and therefore cut short of its fair pro- 
portion of sunshine. The buildings consist- 
ing of two large and commodious hotels and 
three rows of cabins, are conveniently ar- 
ranged upon the plain. The best row of 
cabins is called Philadelphia Row, and is built 
of brick, each cabin containing two good 
rooms in one of which is a fire place. 

The beautiful red mysterious substance is 
not oxyd of selenium, nor vermillion, nor red 
precipitate, nor any other precipitate nor oxyd ; 
but it is *, but no, I will not say what 

* Touching- this red mysterious substance, I have 
diligently inquired, and after much labor lam enabled 
to suspect that the learned Professor opines that it is a 
cryptogatnous plant, and that the letter writer holds the 
same sentiment. 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 65 

it is, because Professor Rogers examined it 
carefully and chemically, and as I believe, 
first discovered its real nature, and will give a 
proper scientific account of it in his forth- 
coming report. 

The table and other accommodations are 
very good, and Mr. Burke, the proprietor, is 
making every effort, by new and expensive 
improvements, to increase the comforts of his 
future guests. 

At 10 A. M. on the 10th September, we left 
the Red Sulphur Spring in a private carriage, 
to pay a visit to the Gray Sulphur, situated at 
the distance of nine miles in a south-west di- 
rection, just within the border of Giles County. 

This is a new establishment, grown up by 
magic since the first of June last. It belongs 
to John D. Legare, Esq. of South Carolina, a 
gentleman of established literary talent, who 
by his great enterprise and good taste, has 
made this lovely wilderness blossom like the 
rose, and bring forth the fruits of civilization 
and comfort. There is a comfortable new 
brick house standing near the middle of a 
gently sloping plain of about twenty acres, 
nearly cleared of trees, and entirely surround- 



56 LETTERS ON THE 

ed by forest-covered mountains, between 
whose base and the house are several beauti- 
ful conical hills, rendering the view from the 
portico exceedingly pleasing. Every thing 
here is conducted after the polished and agree- 
able manner of South Carolina ; all is redolent 
of the Palmetto, and a little pleasant circle 
from that state, may generally be found here. 
There are two springs under the same cover, 
within ten feet of each other ; one containing 
inter alia, bicarbonate of soda, which.is an ex- 
cellent anti-dyspeptic, and is well taken an 
hour after dinner, which is always so good 
here, that every body eats too much. The 
other contains some sulphuretted hydrogen 
and several neutral salts, rendering it aperient 
and diuretic. It should be taken an hour be- 
fore breakfast. The breakfasts and suppers 
are capital, furnished forth with various cakes, 
in form and color new to the northern eye, of 
rice, of corn and wheat ; and in discussing 
these interesting subjects, a quiet deliberation 
reigns, affording the epicure the double op- 
portunity of curing hunger and gratifying 
taste. The wine is so good, that he who 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 57 

drinks it, falsifies the old adage, that " omnes 
errorem bibunt," there is no mistake about it. 

The road from the Red Sulphur, to this 
*' ultima Thule" novissimaque of the Virginia 
Springs, is good, but so hilly, that it requires 
three hours to overcome its nine miles. 

The little plain is skirted on one side by a 
rivulet, v^^hich flows close at the base of Chim- 
ney Ridge, a spur of Peters's mountain, and 
washes a very thick stratum of limestone, con- 
sisting almost entirely of casts of several 
genera of marine shells. 

We passed here, two pleasant days, enjoy- 
ing the quiet of the wilderness, combined with 
every comfort brought from the busy haunts 
of men, and then retraced our steps by the 
same vehicle to the Red Sulphur. 

On a fine day the ride is delightful, the road 
passing for eight miles through the heart of 
the virgin forest, yet untouched, save by the 
hand that traced the road. 

We passed the night at the Red Sulphur, 
and at six the next morning, I mounted beside 
the driver of the Salt Sulphur coach, leaving 
my fellow traveller, who was desirous of visit- 
ing Salt Pond, on the top of Peters's mountain. 

6 



58 I^ETTEKS ON THE 

As I did not see Salt Pond with my own eyes, 
I shall not describe it, only observing, that 
though the pond is salt, yet the water is fresh ; 
and that it may be paradoxically considered 
as one of nature's artificial curiosities, as it is 
said to have been made without hands.* with- 
in the memory of the mountaineers ; and al- 
though it is at the top of a high mountain, 
yet many of the sagacious neighbours suspect 
that it has no bottom. The foundation of this 
belief is supposed to rest on the fact, that it 
has never been sounded with a very long line. 

* On page 789 of my notes, I find the following- entry : 
Salt Pond, a sheet of fresh water on the top of Peters's 
mountain, wliich has collected there during the memory 
of man. It is said that formerly a rivulet which ran 
through a hollow on the top of the mountain, made its 
escape by sinking into the earth. It was a place much 
frequented by cattle, both tame and wild, for the pur- 
pose of quenching their thirst; and in process of time, 
it came to pass, that the trampling of many feet pressed 
down a sufficiency of earth to fill up the crevice, by 
which the water had previously made its escape ; and 
so the accumulations of the rivulet and the rain grad- 
ually submerged the forest, and formed a pond. As this 
was done by feet, our letter writer is correct in saying 
it was made without hands. 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 59 



LETTER VIII. 

An accident, almost — Driver's ingenuity — Humphrey 
Clinker — English Watering Places — Route to Sweet 
Springs — their aspect — temperature — Jean Delorme, 
the Genius Loci — Road to Hot Springs. 

A VERY good coach runs every other day, 
from the White to the Red Sulphur, and back 
again on the intervening days, stopping an 
hour at the Salt Sulphur, which is generally 
improved by the passengers, in swallowing a 
good dinner. This line continues only during 
the season of fashionable visitation, and during 
that period generally runs full, so that it is 
necessary to engage places several days in 
advance. 

I found nine places taken, and so was 
obliged to mount up beside the driver at 
6 A. M. on a cold misty morning ; the rough- 
ness of the road and the quickness of the 



60 LETTEHS ON THE 

driving, which was like the driving of Jehu, 
kept me warm. 

After about an hour's ride, in passing over 
a sort of gutter, the king-bolt or body-pin 
broke, and the coach was just on the point of 
falling from the fore axletree, when the driver 
discovered the accident and drew up his 
horses. I anticipated some delay, but the 
driver had several spare king-bolts and repair- 
ed the damage with such dexterity and expe- 
dition, as convinced me of his deep reading in 
the chapter of accidents. 

At 11 A. M. we arrived safely at the Salt 
Sulphur, where I was soon ensconsed in my 
former comfortable apartment. 

I took a small book from the mantel piece, 
which proved to be the first volume of the ex- 
pedition of Humphrey Clinker, and I passed 
the rest of the day very pleasantly in the 
society of the sensible Matthew Bramble, his 
good tempered sister and the rest of his agree- 
able family. 

The company here was reduced to about a 
dozen, of whom I knew not one ; so that I 
was very lucky to fall in with my old Welsh 
acquaintances from Brambleton Hall. 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 61 

I was particularly interested in the amusing 
and pointed account which the caustic Matthew 
gives of some of the English watering places 
which no American can fail to read with sat- 
isfaction. I refer my readers, if there be any 
such people, to Mr. Bramble's letter, dated 
Bath, 2Sth April, for a most accurate and in- 
teresting picture of the miseries endured by 
hypochondriacs at that celebrated watering 
place ; some parts of which marvellously re- 
semble some little conveniences to be met with 
at our own Spas. By all means, take Clinker 
with you next summer on your Virginia ex- 
pedition, and make it a point to peruse him 
from beginning to end, " ad ovo usque ad 
malum ;" but no, it will not be ad malum, be- 
cause it will result in your own good. 

The next day, at 9 a. m. I started for the 
Sweet Springs, and had the whole coach to 
myself. The distance is sixteen miles, and 
the road is pretty good, passing over the main 
ridge of the Allegheny by a succession of hills 
of such easy ascent and descent, as to convey 
to the traveller, no notion of the mountain 
height he has traversed. 

The ride is very interesting both to Artists 
6* 



62 LETTERS ON THE 

and Naturalists, the fossils being numerous 
and curious, and the scenery assuming a more 
beautiful and civilized aspect, as you come 
within the edge of the Atlantic basin* 

Four hours brought the coach to the Sweet 
Springs, one of the most ancient and celebra- 
ted watering places in the United States. 

The aspect of the place is lovely, the harsh 
and rouffh features which belono; to more re- 
cent clearings, having been mellowed and 
moulded into symmetry by the gentle touch of 
time, that great innovator ; and in the Vir- 
ginia mountains, almost the sole improver, 
because nobody else has capital enough, and 
time is a capital fellow, for time is money. 

You drive into a spacious green undulating 
area, shaded here and there vi^ith trees, and 
surrounded by motley groups of frame build- 
ings of all shapes and ages, and you see in 
front of you, rising behind a row of modern 
cabins, a remarkably beautiful rounded hill, 
whose tree-clad top seems to lead by a gentle 
acclivity to a mountain rans^e which bounds 
the view. 

In a little valley on your left, is a frame 
building containing two large and separate 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 68 

baths for the two sexes, and under its piazza 
is a famous spring, sweet in name, but slight- 
ly acidulous in taste, sparkling and spirit-stir- 
ringlike champaigne, and ever copiously flow- 
in^ like the stream of time : 

o 

" Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis sevum." 
Flows, and will flow, the ever-fleeting spring-, 
'Till the last trump its piercing note shall sing. 

This is what the neighbours call a powerful 
Spring, meaning that it sends forth a power 
of water, and it fills two very large plunging 
baths, which are very agreeable, from the 
sparkling transparency and high temperature 
of the element. 

I think its temperature is about 70 of Fah- 
renheit ; though, being " vix umbra philoso- 
phi," I cannot venture a statement on my own 
authority ; neither do I know its gaseous or 
solid contents, for Professor Rogers, with his 
tests, retorts, receivers and evaporating dishes, 
had not yet arrived. 

In a little unilocular cabin, near the bath 
buildings, resides the ancient Jean Delorme, 
the custos balneorum, who may be seen from 
morn to night, limping about the decrepid 



64 LETTERS ON THE 

bath-house, a compound of contented simpli- 
city and ignorant bliss, the very genius loci. 
Jean's accent and politeness betray his Gallic 
origin, and his simplicity and age excite an 
interest. — One evening, after dark, I tapped 
at his cabin door, which was opened by him- 
self. He was half undressed, preparing for 
his night's rest, and looked surprised, but I 
told him I came to make him a visit, and he 
very politely invited me to take a seat, put on 
his coat, and prepared to support his part in 
the conversation with becoming vigour. I 
gathered from him the following information. 
He was born within twenty miles of Paris on 
a farm, and came to Alexandria, D. C. in 
1791, with a number of French people, who 
intended to settle on the Scioto; he stopped 
near Alexandria, and wroyght on a farm for 
a year, and then engaged with a dentist to go 
to the Sweet Springs. Jean lived with the 
dentist two years, when the latter died, leaving 
Jean poor in the wilderness, not possessing 
English nor money enough to carry him to 
Alexandria, whither he did much incline to 

go- 
In his deep distress, he prevailed upon the 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 65 

landlord of the Sweet Springs, (him of forty 
years ago,) to let him oversee the baths, and 
endeavor to draw a precarious subsistence from 
theyb' pence ha* pennies and nine pences that 
the generosity of the bathers might bestow 
upon his indigence. Jean has pursued this 
metier two-and-forty years, and has grown old 
and lame but not rich and proud. 

In a few years he fell in love, and by way 
of bettering his poor condition, married a 
widow many years his senior, with three 
children, and (to use his own words,) as poor 
a man as himself. I inquired of him, if there 
were any Indians there when he first arrived, 
he said no, but there were plenty of bears, 
panthers, rattlesnakes, wild cats, and other 
vermin. His wife died about two years ago, 
leaving him several generations of descend- 
ants, (by her former lord,) to solace his old 
age. Jean says he has not grown rich be- 
cause he had no learning ; with good old Sir 
Hugh, he laments his lack of Latin and Greek. 
He makes from eighty to one hundred dol- 
lars during the fashionable season, which 
keeps him comfortable for the remaining 
eight months, a period that he passes with his 



66 LETTERS ON THE 

step-son, in a log hut on a little clearing in 
the mountain, which Jean gave him some 
years since. 

When you go to the Sweet Springs, do not 
forget to have some pleasant chat with Jean 
Delorme, and be sure to give him a quarter 
as a souvenir. 

The accommodations at the Sweet Springs 
are good, and in general, quite sufficient for 
the company, which suffers a diurnal ebb and 
flow. 

The road from the Sweet to the Hot Springs 
is very good, and I travelled it in the stage 
coach, between 9 a. m. and 5 p. M. stopping 
an hour and a half at Plum's (olim Callaghan's) 
to demolish a good dinner. 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 67 



LETTER IX. 

Hot Springs — Buildings — Scenery- — Tlie Spout Bath — 
The Boiler— Mode of Bathing— Effects— Diet- 
Taking Seventy Baths — Hot and Cold Springs — 
Physa. 

The Hot Springs are seated in a valley, 
deeply embosomed among mountain peaks, 
and at first sight as you descend the hill com- 
ing from the Warm Springs, appearances do 
not invite a long sojourn. 

The scenery, however, is interesting, and 
grows into your affections the deeper, the lon- 
ger you remain. 

The old frame hotel stands on the south- 
ern side of the road, and presents its narrow 
piazza to the north, in which direction the 
land descends by a gentle slope to the valley 
of thermal Springs, in which stand the bath- 



68 LETTERS ON THE 

ing houses and several rows of cabins, and 
which is bounded by an abrupt, forest-clad 
mountain top. 

Towards the left, the valley spreads out 
into a beautiful verdant meadow of many acres, 
bounded on all sides by forests, rising on the 
steep mountain side, embellished at this time, 
by the many brilliant tints of autumn. 

The present proprietor is Doctor Goode, 
an intelligent physician, who is using great 
exertion and investing much money to render 
the establishment pleasant to travellers, and 
comfortable and useful to valetudinarians. 
The table is very good, and the accommoda- 
tions quite comfortable at present ; but the 
nests of brick cabins rising here and there, 
promise additional enjoyment for the coming 
year. There are two famous baths here, the 
Spout and the Boiler, the former is said to be 
preferred by Orators, the latter by Poets and 
Warriors. The temperature of both is about 
lOG Fahrenheit, a degree of heat which is 
a little scalding at first, but which becomes 
pleasant as soon as the bather is chin deep in 
the health-restoring fluid. 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 69 

The Spout bath is so called, because a con- 
stant stream of water is led from a hot spring 
through a perforated log, from the end of 
which (quasi spout) it pours into the bath, 
affording the bather an opportunity of receiv- 
ing the stream upon any spot of his body or 
limbs, into which rheumatism has thrust his 
uncomfortable claws. This is covered by a 
wooden building, open at top, and has adjoin- 
ing to it a dressing room, in which is a fire. 
After emerging from this bath, you must go 
to your room well wrapped up, and sit or lie 
still until the perspiration subsides. 

The boiler is enclosed in a large wooden 
house which excludes the external air, and in 
which are ten or twelve little rooms, each 
containing a cot and mattress whereon to lie 
and perspire after leaving the bath. You 
remain in the bath until the big drops have 
started on your forehead, and begin to chase 
one another down your innocent nose ; then 
you walk out of the bath into one of the lit- 
tle rooms previously prepared for you by the 
attentive and judicious superintendant, who 
wraps you in flannel from top to toe, yea, in 
toto, except the tip of your nose ; then he lays 
7 



70 LETTERS ON THE 

upon you six blankets, and having put you in 
a comfortable fix, leaves you to be amused 
with reflection and perspiration, while he fixes 
the other bathers. Perspiration soon starts 
from every pore, and you distinctly feel it 
tickling and trickling down your sides. Some- 
times it penetrates the blankets, mattress and 
sackenbottom, and streams upon the floor. 

When you have sweat enough, which will 
be in from thirty to ninety minutes, you call 
to the attendant, who comes, and removes one 
blanket, and at intervals of iive minutes, the 
others one by one. Thus you are gradually 
cooled, and rise and dress, without the least 
danger of taking cold. 

The eflect of this bath on rheumatic and 
gouty affections, and on old deep seated and 
chronic complaints, that medicine does not 
seem to reach, is very beneficial. It restores 
the surface to a good condition, and promotes 
the healthy action of the skin ,* and every 
person who drinks the water of the various 
Sulphur Springs, should afterwards stop here 
two or three weeks, and try the virtue of the 
boiler. 

I remained here six days, and took the 



-'*:. 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 71 

bath every day, with the best results ; and the 
last day I bathed, a friend of mine, who had 
arrived in a very debilitated condition ten 
weeks before, was taking his seventieth bath, 
and had entirely recovered his health, having 
gained in weight nearly a pound a day. 

If taken everyday, the boiler exerts a pow- 
erful action on the system, and therefore it is 
well to use a simple diet. Roast or boiled 
mutton and rice are capital for dinner. By 
the way, talking of rice, do you know why 
rice is like nullification ? To be sure, cry 
several voices, because they both grow in 
South Carolina. No, Ladies and Gentlemen, 
that is not the reason. Do you give it up'? 
It is because it is a sovereign and bloodless 
remedy for attacks on the Constitution. 

For breakfast and supper, take tea and 
crackers, black tea and water crackers. Not 
those horrid things commonly called water 
crackers, that the wicked bakers sophisticate 
with butter or lard to please the multitudi- 
nous taste, (for the pure water cracker is 
caviare to the general, it pleases not the mil- 
lion,) but those genuine compounds of sweet 
superfine flour and pure hydrant water, made 
by Wattson, away up Front street. Take 



■^h- 



72 LETTERS ON THE 

with you a tin canister full of these, for they 
will keep a long time, and are of rare occur- 
rence beyond the sound of Christ Church 
Bells. The maker's name is on the crackers, 
and you will perceive that he spells it with a 
superfluous T, a proof that tea and crackers 
should go together. 

There is another bath here of the temper- 
ature of ninety-six, which is called the plea- 
sure bath. It is circular; thirty eight feet 
wide, from four to five feet deep, and is cov- 
ered with a handsome wooden building, with 
a large opening in the roof. 

There are, near the hotel, a hot and a cold 
spring issuing so near each other, that you 
can dip the thumb and fore finger of the same 
hand into hot and cold water at the same time. 
These two springs run in the same water 
course, which is inhabited by a beautiful 
species of Physa, multitudes of which seem 
to linger about the line of junction of the hot 
and cold water ; so that they can change their 
climate, to suit the fancy of the moment. 

Here, I was joined by three friends, and we 
engaged an extra coach, to take us to Har- 
pers's Ferry, travelling to suit our own con- 
venience. 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 73 



LETTER X . 

Departure — Warm Springs — Monsieur Lange — Eoute 
from Frazier's to Harrisonburg — New Market — 
Mount Jackson — Landlady of the Swan — Bad Road 
to Woodstock — Winchester — Taylor's capital Hotel 
— Rate of Living. 

At 3 o'clock, p. m. on the 26th September, 
the weather being fine, we left the Hot 
Springs in our chartered Winchester Coach, 
owned and commanded by Lewis Harden of 
that ilk. Our coach was comfortable, our 
horses good, and our driver skilful. In an 
hour we safely crawled over the little mountains 
which repose between the Hot and the Warm 
Springs, and came to anchor for the night at 
the latter place. Much pleasant company 
was still lingering there, lest they should 
overtake the ague, yet loitering on the eas- 
tern plains. 

•7* 



74 LETTERS ON THE 

We were well supped, bedded and break- 
fasted, and were snugly lepacked in the coach, 
with two additional compagnons de voyage, 
by 9 the next morning, at which hour we left 
the valley of thermal waters, and began to 
wind our toilsome, slow and zigzag course, up 
the western acclivity of the Warm Spring 
mountain. 

The labor of ascent is well repaid, by the 
magnificent mountain view, which, as you 
pass the gap, opens on your vision from the 
east, now beautifully chequered by the bril- 
liant tints of autumn. 

The road, our horses, and our appetites 
were so good, that by 2 p. m. we were ready 
to stop at the house of Abraham Lange, and 
eat our dinner. Mr. Lange looks, and talks 
English very like our germanico-Pennsylva- 
nians ; but his politeness and oralets soon 
betray his gallic origin. He is skillful at 
draughts, (I do not mean of whiskey,) and if 
you want a good dinner, ask him to favour 
you with a game, he will beat you, and then 
administer inward consolation, in the shape 
of fried chickens, and a capital omlet. He 
has resided there more than thirty years, and 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 75 

grown with the country into competency and 
comfort, and can give you interesting sketches 
of the progress of men and things in his 
locality. 

At dusk we arrived at Frazier's having 
performed a journey of forty-two miles since 
breakfast, with the same horses. The next 
morning at eight, we took the direct road to 
Harrisonburg, leaving Staunton twelve miles 
on our right, and saving so much of our dis- 
tance. The distance from Frazier's to Har- 
risonburg is twenty-two miles, and the road, 
though not turnpiked, for the first eleven 
miles is very good ; now agreeably winding 
through the forest, and now emerging into the 
open and more cultivated country. The re- 
maining eleven miles is well made turnpike, 
which ends at Harrisonburg. 

We arrived at the last named place at 
noon, and stopped two hours at the George 
Washington, (venerabile nomen !) to feed our 
horses and ourselves. — After demolishing a 
good dinner, we started again at 2 p. m. in- 
tending to pass the night at New Market, 
twenty-miles off. We now became sensible 
that the road was growing worse, and before 



76 LETTERS ON THIh 

we reached New Market, we were well sha- 
ken. At 5 1 p. M. we drove into New Mar- 
ket, and not perceiving any symptoms of good 
cheer we determined to make an effort to 
reach xMount Jackson, seven miles farther on. 
It rained, and the road had become bad, and 
the night was becoming very dark ; but by 
dint of careful driving and good horses, we got 
through our troubles before 8 p. m., almost 
feeling our way through the palpable obscure. 
Our driver, who is knowing about these parts, 
took us to the sign of the Swan, on the right 
hand, a tavern kept in very good style by the 
landlord's wife, who is as well developed a 
specimen of fat female good nature and use- 
fulness as may be found in the old Dominion. 
Here we were very comfortable, fared sump- 
tuously, and lay in fine linen, and at 6 a. m. 
the next morning, were bid farewell with the 
gentle charge of three ^evenpenny-bits each 
for supper and lodging. 

We now reached very bad roads, nay abso- 
lutely abominable, which if you were to see, 
you would think impassable ; and if I were 
to describe, you would exclaim impossible! 
The route for many miles, passes over the 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 77 

edges of limestone strata, very much inclined 
from the horizontal plain, and in many places 
entirely denuded, so that the horses were 
obliged to lay aside all their accustomed gaits, 
and adopt one for the occasion, which may be 
appropriately termed, a scramble. But what 
obstacles will not a Virginico-yankee equipage 
overcome ? Our driver was Yankee, our 
vehicle Trojan, and our horses Tuckahoe. 

In four hours we reached Woodstock, where 
we got a very good breakfast at Reamer's, for 
thirty-one cents, and at 11a. m. started for 
Winchester, the capitol of the Quo'hees. The 
road is pretty considerable bad, being super- 
fluously supplied with rocks by nature, who is 
no miser, nor macadamiser neither, and there- 
fore, she has not broken them small enough 
to made a good road. 

Five o'clock, p. m., however, brough us safe 
and hungry to Taylor's magnificent hotel, in 
the pleasant town of Winchester. This is, 
in every respect, a first rate house, full of 
comforts, luxuries and reasonable charges. 
The annual rate of board here^ with a single 
bed room, is one hundred and twenty-five dol- 
lars. Here we finished our day's journey, 
and here I finish this epistle^ 



( 79 ) 



LETTER XI. 

Road to Harper's Ferry — Mr. Jefferson's description — 
Kirauea — Tomboro — Potomac — Shenandoah — Town 
— Fitzsimmons's — Factory of Arms — Chapel — Strait 
Gun Stocks — Turning Machine — Mr. Jefferson's 
Rock, a Rocking Stone. 

At 7^ A. M. on the 30th September, we 
left Winchester for Harper's Ferry, a distance 
of about thirty miles. The greatest part of 
the road is tolerably bad, but the country is 
interesting, and becomes more so as you draw 
nigher to Harper's Ferry, which every 
neophyte traveller must approach with a suffi- 
cient preparation of astonishment and admira- 
ration ; at least such must be his condition if 
he has ever read Mr. Jefferson's description 
of this celebrated spot, which is in the follow- 
ing words ; " The passage of the Patowmac 
through the blue ridge is perhaps one of the 
most stupendous scenes in nature. You stand 



80 LETTERS ON THE 

on a very high point of land. On your right 
comes up the Shenandoah, having ranged 
along the foot of the mountain a hundred miles 
to seek a vent. On your left approaches the 
Patowmac, in quest of a passage also. In the 
moment of their junction they rush together 
against the mountain, rend it asunder, and pass 
off to the sea." Notes on Virginia, N. Y. 
1801, p. 27. What will the neoterick geolo- 
gists say to the notion of two quiet rivers 
joining and in a moment rending asunder the 
solid mountain ! When the first two lines of 
this eloquent passage were penned, the writer 
probably had not seen the ocean cataract of 
Niagara ; nor the Val del Bove on Mount 
^tna, an enormous chasm running down the 
mountain for twelve miles, bounded by almost 
perpendicular cliffs, in some places three 
thousand feet in depth, and containing within 
its ample bosom volcanic craters communica- 
ting with the fiery gulph below. 

The scientific world had not then heard of 
Kirauea a moiintain in Hawaii, on whose side 
an immense opening many miles in circum- 
ference, exhibits to the light of day some of the 
greatest operations performed in the laboratory 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 81 

of nature ; within whose tall and blackened 
cliffs may be seen hundreds of volcanic cones 
perpetually burning, mountains of sulphur, and 
still more strange and awful, an earthly 
Phiegethon, or lake of melted lava, several 
miles in extent, and continually raging like 
ocean waves. 

Nor then had Tomboro, in the island of 
Sumbuwa, blown off his towering head, cover- 
ing five hundred miles of ocean with the frag- 
ments, almost ground to powder ; and astound- 
ing by his deep-toned bellowing, the savage 
nations for a thousand miles. 

The rending of!" the top of such a mountain 
by a sudden explosion, must leave a scene 
much more stupendous than that in question. 

The scenery at Harper's Ferry is indeed 
beautiful and romantic, and may approach to 
the sublime in the spring, when the rivers are 
well filled with water. But when I saw it the 
streams were scarcely commensurate with 
their rugged beds, and the water rippled 
sluggishly over the pebbles, and flowed quietly 
between the rocks. 

The Potomac just below the point at which 
the Shenandoah joins it, passes the Blue Ridge 
8 



82 LETTERS ON THE 

through a wide gap, which had to my eye no 
appearance of having been burst or cut through 
the mountain by the force of water ; but seems 
rather to have existed in the ridge at its first 
upheaving above the surface of the ocean. 
The sides of the gap slope up from the river 
with a steepness not greater than the natural 
angle of repose. 

We arrived at the ferry at 2| p. m. and 
stopped at Fitzsimraons's Hotel ; whose in- 
terior and good cheer are much better than 
its outside promise. The approach to the 
town, as you descend a long hill and come in 
sight of the Shenandoah is very imposing. 
The principal part of the town is close on the 
Shenandoah immediately under the high hill 
which divides the rivers. The Federal Manu- 
factories of Arms, extend up the right bank of 
the Potomac. There are several houses 
and a beautiful Catholic chapel perched upon 
sites cut from the solid rock at elevations of 
from fifty to one hundred feet, which are ap- 
proached by flights of steps also cut from the 
rock, which have a beautiful and romantic ap- 
pearance, and command a fine view of the 



VIKGINIA SPRINGS. 83 

whole scene. There is a substantial covered 
bridge across the Potomac. 

After dinner we made the tour of the ar- 
senals and the manufactories. The arsenals 
seem to be in very good order and the arms 
well kept ; but upon handling one of the mus- 
kets I found the stock so strait, that when I 
brought it to my shoulder, it was impossible 
for the eve to range alone the barrel. This is 
a fatal defect, and troops using these in action, 
would inevitably fire above the heads of their 
antagonists. In the coming conflict with the 
French we had better give these rriuskets to 
our enemies, and buy better ones, where we 
can get them. 

We saw in the manufactories that ingenious 
yankee lathe which turns gun stocks and shoe 
lasts ; but if it cannot make better stocks than 
those I saw, it would have been better had it 
turned its last, before it came to Harper's 
Ferry. 

We ascended two high hills, from which 
we had splendid views in several directions, 
and we visited Jefferson's rock, so called be- 
cause tradition says the Philosopher sat there- 



84 LETTERS ON THE 

on, when he wrote his account of Harper's 
Ferry. 

This singular rock is on a high hill which 
overhangs the town ; its top is flat, almost 
horizontal, nearly square, and about twelve 
feet wide ; its base does not exceed four or 
five feet in width, and rests upon the top of a 
larger mass of rock jutting from the hill ; its 
height is about four or five feet. 

My companions got on the top to enjoy 
the extensive prospect which lay beneath. 
From its narrow base and nicely balanced at- 
titude, it struck me that it might be caused 
to vibrate on its base ; and taking hold of its 
edge and applying my utmost strength I made 
it shake so sensibly, that those upon it ex- 
claimed that it was like an earthquake. At 
our Inn they told us, that they did not know 
that Mr. Jefferson's rock could be moved. 

The table and accommodations at Fitzsim- 
mons's Globe Inn are very good, but at cer- 
tain seasons are liable to be over-crowded at 
night ; so that it is expedient for travellers 
who care for comfort, to contrive to arrive 
before dinner, that they may engage their 
rooms before the evening flood comes in. 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 85 



LETTER XII. 

The Ancients — Idleness — Pliny — Dogberry — Spa-hun- 
ters — Canal boat veracity and comforts — Point of 

Rocks Rail Road ^Scenery- — Ellicott's Mills 

Route to Richmond — Powhatan House — From Rich- 
mond by Lynchburg to Sweet, and by Charlottesville 
to Warm Springs — Mr. Jefferson's notice of the 
Sweet and White Sulphur Springs— Concluding Hint. 

Mr. Editor — It is so long since I have 
favored you with an epistle, that I suppose 
you begin to flatter yourself that I was gath- 
ered to nay ancestors, and no doubt, had you 
honoured me with a letter, you would have 
begun and ended as Pliny to Fabius, " Olim 
nullas mihi epistolas mittis. Nihil est, (inquis) 
quod scribam. At hoc ipsum scribe, nihil 
esse quod scribas, vel solum illud, unde inci- 
pere Priores solent. Si vales ; bene est ; ego 
valeo. Fac sciam quid agas ; quod sine soH- 
8* 



86 LETTERS ON THE 

citudine sumraa nescire non possum. Vale." 
There is no such good luck, however, for you 
and your compositors ; I am neither dead nor 
sick, but for the last three months I have been 
suffering under a most paralysing spell of 
idleness, and in such a case, spelling is all 
one is up to ; reading and writing are as 
much out of the question, as if they did not 
come by nature, as the sagacious Dogberry 
hath hinted. Be not alarmed, however, for 
this is positively the last ; duodecima, novis- 
sima, uitimaque. 

So many of my acquaintances from down 
east and other foreign parts have come to 
town, seeking the land of health and promise 
in the Virginia mountains, and speering so 
many questions after the best way to get there, 
that I feel wide awake, and somewhat dis- 
posed to afford inquiring friends some infor- 
mation touching that pleasant country. O 
rus quando te aspiciam ! 

The end of my eleventh letter left us at 
Harper's Ferry, just after shaking the Philoso- 
pher's stone. We had an excellent supper at 
Fitzsimmons's, after which the agent of the 
canal boat came in to engage us for his pas- 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS, 87 

sengers in the morning ; telling us we should 
be called at six next morning ; having di- 
vined by some hidden process that we did not 
glory in early rising ; after that veracious per- 
sonage had taken himself off with our money, 
Mr. Fitzsimmons giving us a knowing wink, 
hinted that we should be routed between four 
and five. With that agreeable suspicion in- 
fused into our minds, we retired to our beds, 
which were comfortable, but alas ! not long to 
be enjoyed ; for at 3 a. m. the sable mes- 
senger of unrest, with murky dip in hand, 
thrust his ugly phiz into my dormitory, wear- 
ing on his careful brow a doubt of welcome, 
and communicating the distressing news that 
the Captain of the Canal Boat was collecting 
his passengers and baggage, to make an early 
start. 

We found the captain and a shower of rain 
waiting for us. There were carriages for the 
ladies and baggage, to carry them dry across 
the bridge to the beginning of the Canal, 
which is on the Maryland side of the Poto- 
mac. The boat looked as if it had been bor- 
rowed of Charon for the nonce, as it had just 
been rescued ab imo by dint of baling, whither 



88 LETTERS ON THE 

an uncivil stone had sent it the day before, by 
knocking a hole in its bottom. The crew were 
still baling, and as it was dark, the aquatic 
vehicle had a most uncomfortable appearance. 
There was on board a French diplomatic 
family, who shrugged their shoulders awful- 
ly, and looked unutterable things, but said 
never a word. As it was too dark and pluvio- 
misty to see the scenery, 1 tumbled into a 
berth and slept away an hour and six miles. 
In two hours we arrived at the Point of Rocks, 
twelve miles from Harper's Ferry, having 
passed through the gap in the Blue Ridge, 
through which the Potomac flows. The canal 
runs between the river and the foot of the 
mountain, occupying nearly the whole space. 
The scenery is romantic and beautiful, and 
well worth a view by day light. 

The necessity of getting up before daylight 
and travelling twelve miles in a boat that has 
been sunk, w^Jl probably be obviated next sum- 
mer, as it is understood that the Rail Road 
will be finished as far as Harper's Ferry, 
when additional locomotive accommodations 
will no doubt be found upon this route. 

From the Point of Rocks to Washington 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 89 

the access is very easy through the canal, 
which is in good navigable order, and on 
which there is a good line of packets. The 
Charonic Boat goes no further than the Point 
of Rocks. 

At the Point of Rocks we landed, got a 
good breakfast and took the Rail Road Cars 
for Baltimore at half past 8 a. m. At half 
past 9 we met the train from Frederick 
which was to carry us to Baltimore. The first 
half of the distance we were drawn by good 
horses and the last half by steam. The ap- 
pearance of the country between Frederick 
and Ellicott's Mills is very interesting. The 
land is good, farms well cultivated, the houses 
comfortable and handsome, and the whole 
surface wears the aspect of long settlement 
and civilization. The cuts along the Rail 
Road, here and there, expose large masses of 
that beautiful pudding stone, of which are 
made the magnificent columns that support 
the dome of the Representatives' Chamber in 
the Capitol at Washington. We dined at 
Ellicott's Mills, where there are a commodi- 
ous Hotel and many large manufactories. 
Several hours may be spent here very agree- 



90 LETTERS ON THE 

ably in viewing the scenery and the passage 
of the Rail Road across the Patapsco. 

We arrived at Baltimore at 4 p. m. and 
rested from our labours at the Fountain Inn 
in Light street, which we found an excellent 
house ; the chambers and beds being particu- 
larly comfortable. I shall say nothing of the 
route to Philadelphia, as its reverse is des- 
cribed in my first lettter, which you can read 
backwards, if you like. 

If the traveller wishes to visit Richmond 
on his way to the Virginia Springs, he will 
leave Philadelphia at 6 a. m. in steamboat ; he 
will meet the Norfolk boat at about 2 p. m. in 
the Patapsco, into which boat he will tranship 
himself and baggage, and steam down the bay 
towards Old Point Comfort, near which, and 
near 6 the next morning, he will meet a boat 
that will take him to Richmond before night. 
Arrived there he will take a hack and drive 
immediately to the Powhatan House, which 
stands on the Hill fronting the Capitol. This 
house is beautifully situated, is spacious, airy 
and convenient, and is under the direction of 
Mrs. Duvall, who spares no pains to contri- 
bute to the comfort and satisfaction of her 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 91 

guests, and her efforts are always crowned 
with success. 

Here being comfortably nestled, the travel- 
ler would do well to remain at least one week ; 
for Richmond contains many persons and 
things worthy of attention. An excursion of 
twenty-jEive miles may be made to Petersburg, 
where begins a good Rail Road that leads 
directly into North Carolina. The Capitol, 
the canal walk, and the great flour mills are 
objects of interest. 

From Richmond the traveller can reach the 
Springs by one of two routes — by Char- 
lottesville to the Warm Springs ; or by Lynch- 
burg and Fincastle to the Sweet Springs. 
The distance to Charlottesville is about eigh- 
ty-four miles and the road is pretty good. 
There is a good house at Powell's fourteen 
miles from Richmond, and about thirty miles 
further is another very good house kept by 
Mrs. Tinsley. 

On the Lynchburg and Fincastle route, the 
traveller can visit the Natural Bridge and the 
Peaks of Otter, on his way to the Sweet 
Springs. The distance from the Sweet to the 
White Sulphur Springs is only sixteen miles of 



92 LETTERS ON THE 

good road, leading by a very gradual ascent 
over the Allegheny Mountain. The White 
Sulphur, now the lion of Virginia, and the 
Sweet Springs, now an ancient establishment, 
are barely mentioned by Mr. Jefferson in his 
notes. After bestowing some lines on the 
Warm and Hot Springs, he bestows the fol- 
lowing words on the other two : — " The 
Sweet Springs are in the county of Bote- 
tourt, they are still less known. They are 
different also in their temperature, being as 
cold as common water.^^ Notes on Virginia 
p. 50. 

" We are told of a Sulphur Spring on How- 
ard's creek of Greenbrier." Notes on Vir- 
ginia p. 51. 

We are told of it now too ; but it is by the 
thousands who have been there, and the ten 
thousands who are going. 

I have now done Mr. Editor ; I do not 
mean to trouble you, nor your subscribers 
with any more letters ; my farrago has come 
to an end, and I cannot refrain from saying, 

" Cum relego, scripsisse pudet, quia plurima cernoj 
" Me quoque quee fuerant judice digna lini ;" 



VIRGINIA SPRINGS. 93 

but if 1 have induced two or three to inhale 
the pure air of the Allegheny, or to gather 
sweets in mountain wood, or flowery vale, 

" Floriferis ut apes in saltibus omnia libant," 

I am content ; and conclude with a single hint 
to the Millionary from the East, and the 
Exquisite from Gotham qui, ' nil rectum, 
nisi quod placuit sibi, ducit,' not to be hasty 
in judging people from their outsides (ex 
habitu hominem metiens,) else in these re- 
gions, they may neglect a diamond in the 
rough, or reject a shell which contains a 
pearl. 



ADDENDUM. 



BY THE EDITOR. 



The unconscionable man of types hath sent 
his devil after me, to communicate the un- 
welcome intelligence that the twelfth letter is 
all in type, and yet there is not matter enough 
to fill the last form ; so that after having sunk 
down into an agreeable comatose state of re- 
pose, in the comfortable hope that my edito- 
rial labors were ended pro hac vice, I am re- 
duced to the direful necessity, at this eleventh 
hour, (for the press-gang will not be denied,) 
of again returning to my inky work. 

In Morgan County, in the Northern Neck 
of Virginia, about six miles south of the Mary- 
land line, where that state is not more than 
a mile and a half in breadth, is situated a 



96 ADDENDUM. 

pretty little village called Bath. Here are 
copious springs of almost tepid water strongly 
charged with magnesia, which supply a num- 
ber of agreeable baths. There are two good 
Hotels, well prepared for the reception of 
visiters, a beautiful promenade laid out with 
much taste and planted with shady trees. 

Having arrived at Winchester on your re- 
turn from the Warm Springs, and being de- 
sirous of prolonging your tour, you may reach 
Bath in one day by a very hilly and romantic 
road of thirty-six miles in length. About mid- 
way, on the top of a high ridge, and embow- 
ered in trees is a little tavern, where you can 
dine and rest your horses. 

Bath is the halfway house between Balti- 
more and the Bedford Springs, and the com- 
pany generally consists of families from Bal- 
timore, who stop there on their way to and 
from Bedford, of Virginians from the neigh- 
bouring counties, and a few ubiquitary travel- 
lers like myself. 

The country hereabout is wild and roman- 
tic, and abounds in beautiful rides and walks. 
Six miles to the north, just over the Potomac, 
is situated the town of Hancock in Maryland, 



ADDENDUM. 97 

on the state turnpike road, which passes 
through Hagerstown and Frederick. The 
distance to Hagerstown is twenty-eight and 
thence to Frederick twenty-two miles. The 
country is beautiful, the land good and well 
cultivated, and the Blue Ridge is crossed 
before reaching Frederick. 

When you have arrived at Frederick, if 
you are in haste, you will take the Rail-road 
to Baltimore; if not, and you wish to see the 
best cultivated portion of Pennsylvania, you 
will hire a carriage to take you to Emmetts- 
burg, distant from Frederick about twenty- 
six miles, and one mile south of Mason & 
Dixon's line. The road is excellent and runs 
within sight of the Blue Ridge the whole dis- 
tance. There is at Emmettsburg a very 
good tavern to sleep at, kept by Mr. Agnevv. 
About two miles from the town, and some dis- 
tance up the side of the Blue Ridge, is the 
Roman Catholic Seminary, from which is a 
beautiful and extensive prospect. The nun- 
nery, where dwell the pious and benevolent 
sisters of charity is nearer to the town. 

From Emmettsburg to Gettysburg in Penn- 
sylvania is ten miles of rough road. 
9* 



98 ADDENDUM. 

At Gettysburg you come on the Pennsyl- 
vania turnpike, a good road, which in thirty 
miles brings you to York, through a very in- 
teresting country. In twelve miles more you 
reach the noble Susquehanna, which you 
will cross on the new bridge, which will land 
you in the town of Columbia, situated at the 
west end of the great Rail-road. While on 
the bridge turn your eyes to the left, and two 
miles up the river you will see the town of 
Marietta. The scenery on the river is en- 
chanting ; and you can spend a day very 
comfortably at Jeffrey's, which is a very good 
house. 

From Columbia you can reach Philadel- 
phia in eight hours by the Rail-road; but if 
you have never passed this way before, you 
had better travel through Lancaster County 
in some kind of vehicle drawn by horses, as 
the country is too interesting to pass through 
like a streak of chalk. The city of Lancas- 
ter also is worth seeing, and you will find 
there plenty of good cheer. 

I guess my addendum is now long enough 
to fill up the measure of the printer's wishes ; 



ADDENDUM. 99 

and, as I am afraid the compositors will 
strike, if the press should wait any longer, I 
must now make an 



END. 



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